Fundamental change in Asia?

ABC News: U.S. Pushing Japan to Boost Military Role: "In the most sweeping re-examination of the U.S.-Japan security alliance in years, Japan and the United States are negotiating a military realignment that could move some or all of the nearly 20,000 Marines off the crowded island of Okinawa, close underused bases and meld an Army command in Washington state with a camp just south of Tokyo.
But something even more fundamental may be at stake.
With its own military spread thin, Washington appears to be trying to use the talks to nudge Japan out from under the U.S. security blanket and make Tokyo a much more active player in global strategic operations."

This is huge. Japan had decades of history as a militaristic nation, dominating east Asia. Post-WWII, Japan was of course completely neutralized, forbidden to rearm. Is this changing as part of an effort to restrain the North Korean regime?